DCU Comic Book Reviews

JUSTICE SOCIETY of AMERICA #38

Sympathy For The Führer, Part Three of Fatherland

June 2010

Written by Bill Willingham

Pencils by Jesus Merino

Inks by Jesse Delperdang

Cover by Jesus Merino

Synopsis

Twenty Years Earlier…Superman was in the midst of fighting the Behemoth Beast when the Darkness Engine wave nullified all super powers.  All over the globe, similar heroes experienced the same loss of powers, which allowed the Fourth Reich to take over America.  Twenty Years Later…Michael Holt (aka Mr. Terrific) prepares for the execution of Batman.  On the way there, Mr. Terrific meets the Führer, Herr Karnes (aka Kid Karnevil).  At the execution, the heroes set in motion their escape plan.  Jaime Reyes (aka Blue Beetle) attacks Mr. Terrific, claiming Mr. Terrific is a traitor to the heroes.  Jaime pummels Mr. Terrific enough to send him to the hospital.  However, his actions result in the Führer ordering Jaime’s death.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I have mixed feelings about this issue.  The end of the last issue set-up the heroes plan for the next escape attempt.  We don’t actually see that plan go into effect until the end of the issue.  Up to that point, we get a lot of filler and exposition.  On the one hand, I am annoyed that Willingham is still setting the basic scenario of the story, that in the third part of the story we are getting more of the hows and whys of the rise of the Fourth Reich.  Although I liked the sequence with Superman, and the way he proved to be a hero regardless of losing his powers, it didn’t really add much to the story being told.  Nor did the scene that showed the different heroes losing their powers.  At this point Willingham should have the stage set and we should be chugging along with the story rather than going back to tell us what happened before.  However, once we get past the flashback and to the core of the story, the story picks up steam.  The story itself is predictable (we know how it will end), but it still has some zest to it thanks in large part to Kid Karnevil.  As usual, Willingham nails the Kid’s evil with conviction; I thought his reaction to Batman’s execution, the fight between Jaime and Michael and his causal execution of the woman was perfect.  I think this story only works because of Karnevil; he is such a great character under Willingham’s pen. 

I have one major quibble with this issue (and I suppose the storyline in general).  I am having a tough time with the Darkness Engine, whose reach and ability seems to be extremely broad.  It seems to effect not only those with the meta-gene, but those with alien DNA (Superman and to a lesser extent Blue Beetle), those with altered DNA (Aquaman and Atlantians), those with God (or devil)-given powers (Wonder Woman, Blue Devil), and those whose powers is generated by their own will (Green Lantern).  I realize that Willingham needs to remove all super-powered beings in order for the story to work, but it is a little hard to accept that the machine (even with Obsidian controlling it) could do so much to so many different people. 

Not to quibble (again), but technically the Fourth Reich emerged after World War II (in which Hitler rose to power as the leader of the Third Reich) in the 1960s and 1970s.  I suppose you could argue that the Fourth Reich never amounted to much, but I think it had enough traction that Karnes’ rule should be dubbed the Fifth Reich. 

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